Telecommunication customers are billed in one of two ways. Postpaid customers are billed by accumulating charges for a call in a billing system and subsequently using the accumulated charges to prepare a bill that is sent to the customer. Prepaid service is provided by allowing customers to build up a prepaid account and subtracting from this account the amount of any charges for each call.
In accordance with one prior art of prepaid charging method, customers can purchase recharge cards (scratch cards) which can be used by the customers to increment the amount stored for these customers in their accounts. Such cards can only be purchased from the service providers, and retailers and/or distributors which are associated with service providers. A customer who has purchased such a card can communicate with an interactive voice response (IVR) system to enter data on the card. A wireless customer is identified by the mobile identification number (MIN) or mobile directory number (MDN). A wireline customer is identified by automatic number identification of the calling line. The prepaid administration system uses the customer's identification, plus other data entered by the customer, to access and modify the data in the customer's account. There is a recharge card management system which stores the recharge card information, including card batch and serial number, card number (or PIN), card face value, and card status. The prepaid administration system will validate the recharge card information on the recharge card management system by providing customer identification, card number (or PIN). The recharge card management system validates the card status, if it is valid and activated, it will respond the prepaid administration system with card face value. The prepaid administration system then increments the customer's prepaid account.
A problem of the prior art is that the recharge card management system is accessible and manageable by the service providers only. Independent resellers and retailers can not access and manage the recharge cards, including creation of scratch cards, viewing and modifying card information and status—such independent resellers can advertise the prepaid cards and thus help to bring more business to the service providers. In addition, such resellers may have a large number of points of sale to make it more convenient for customers to purchase the scratch cards. A problem of the prior art is that there is no satisfactory arrangement for allowing independent resellers or retailers to access and manage the recharge card management system securely and to sell such scratch cards to customers.